Chronicling Care Oral History Project (CCOH) aims to create a living archive of community care and interdependence. In partnership with Clean Air Club, this project calls forth and preserves the experiences of COVID-conscious Chicagoans. We operate from the disability justice maxim “nothing about us without us.” In recording struggles against state neglect and violence, CCOH centers communities disproportionately affected by the pandemic—particularly disabled, queer, Black, Brown, Indigenous, and low-income communities. Our vision is to uplift and weave into an ever-closer community the vibrant web of groups and individuals organizing for non-carceral safety and justice.
We are looking to conduct oral histories with self-identified COVID-conscious Chicagoans. These oral histories will be digitally preserved and made accessible on our website. With narrator consent at every step, recordings and transcriptions may also be used in narrative forms like podcasts, newsletters, and art.
We hope to build a collection of these histories that (1) reflects the complexity of individual lived experiences and (2) showcases the extensive ecosystem of COVID-conscious organizing, advocacy, and community. To this end, we aim to conduct interviews focused on both individual experiences and about organizational or other collective efforts to create COVID-safer spaces. Please indicate below if you are active in COVID organizing spaces and if you would like to talk about this work in your oral history.
Additionally, you might offer an oral history not as an individual, but on behalf of the organization, business, or other entity that you've worked on. Should you take this path, we ask that you seek the consent of your members and/or leadership to give a representative narrative.
